its gone a be exactly like the hopkins vs pavlik fight just ward being more active than hopkins and being much faster. Horrible fight for pavlik and ward's chin is rock solid took froch, kessler and AA's best punches. Drunken rehab pavlik has no chance. He's gone a get schooled sooooooo hard.

Negotiations are reportedly going well: 95% done. I haven't heard anything about a venue, but for reasons I already explained, I suspect Vegas.

Now I think we need to get the ESB administration to devote a sub-forum to hypocrites. You know, British Boxing, Classic Boxing, SNIVELING-HYPOCRITICAL-NON-BOXING-FANS. That way you ****wits can hang out in your very own forum, and ***** and whine to each other.

Ever since KP launched his comeback under Garcia, 9 out of 10 of you ****ing morons have done nothing but critisize the level of competition. Now he shuts down the idea of fighting a nobody like Rodriguez, and goes after the #1 guy, and he catches nothing but **** for it. This is one of the gutsiest moves I've seen since the first Ali/Quarry fight (actually at the time it was more of a Quarry/Ali fight than vice versa) and Pavlik deserves big props for his willingness to step up to the plate.

Oh, and by the way, just to pour a little salt in your pathetic and festering little wounds, Kelly is extremely excited, and fully expects to knock Ward out.

Negotiations are reportedly going well: 95% done. I haven't heard anything about a venue, but for reasons I already explained, I suspect Vegas.

Now I think we need to get the ESB administration to devote a sub-forum to hypocrites. You know, British Boxing, Classic Boxing, SNIVELING-HYPOCRITICAL-NON-BOXING-FANS. That way you ****wits can hang out in your very own forum, and ***** and whine to each other.

Ever since KP launched his comeback under Garcia, 9 out of 10 of you ****ing morons have done nothing but critisize the level of competition. Now he shuts down the idea of fighting a nobody like Rodriguez, and goes after the #1 guy, and he catches nothing but **** for it. This is one of the gutsiest moves I've seen since the first Ali/Quarry fight (actually at the time it was more of a Quarry/Ali fight than vice versa) and Pavlik deserves big props for his willingness to step up to the plate.

Oh, and by the way, just to pour a little salt in your pathetic and festering little wounds, Kelly is extremely excited, and fully expects to knock Ward out.

Much respect for going after the top guy in the division. Personally if I was managing his career, I would have built up one more fight to it (Stevenson/Rodriguez...thinking long-term earning potential here). So respect to taking the fight even though on the surface he has nothing to lose.

I still think Ward dominates him though.

EDIT: I think the thing that may annoy people about this fight is assuming if it goes as expected, then it really reveal too much about either guy. If Ward has a dominating UD, or a 9-3 type decision, he's still the best fighter at SMW and Pavlik....well....where do you put him? His best win since he officially moved up to SMW was Will Rosinsky. His best win ever around SMW was Jermain Taylor at 166 almost 5 years ago and who knows exactly how much stock to put into given Taylor was viciously KO'd by Pavlik only 6 months before and Taylor's overall record at SMW isn't good. So if the fight goes about as expected Ward would still be #1 and Pavlik could be anywhere around the top 10. Had Pavlik had a build up fight to this one Stevenson/Rodriguez/Bika/etc it would give people more of an idea where to place him and how much to put into a Ward win (should he win).

Negotiations are reportedly going well: 95% done. I haven't heard anything about a venue, but for reasons I already explained, I suspect Vegas.

Now I think we need to get the ESB administration to devote a sub-forum to hypocrites. You know, British Boxing, Classic Boxing, SNIVELING-HYPOCRITICAL-NON-BOXING-FANS. That way you ****wits can hang out in your very own forum, and ***** and whine to each other.

Ever since KP launched his comeback under Garcia, 9 out of 10 of you ****ing morons have done nothing but critisize the level of competition. Now he shuts down the idea of fighting a nobody like Rodriguez, and goes after the #1 guy, and he catches nothing but **** for it. This is one of the gutsiest moves I've seen since the first Ali/Quarry fight (actually at the time it was more of a Quarry/Ali fight than vice versa) and Pavlik deserves big props for his willingness to step up to the plate.

Oh, and by the way, just to pour a little salt in your pathetic and festering little wounds, Kelly is extremely excited, and fully expects to knock Ward out.

You know I like to watch fights back to back to get a good idea of how a fight can go. I'm not sure Ward's or Pavlik's latest fights will offer much insight into what to expect. I still see Kelly as having to think too much about his newly learned tactics and not sure how well he will do because of it. He's right that one, one, two, back him up isn't gonna cut it with Ward but that is what he grew up on and can do instinctively.

Negotiations are reportedly going well: 95% done. I haven't heard anything about a venue, but for reasons I already explained, I suspect Vegas.

Now I think we need to get the ESB administration to devote a sub-forum to hypocrites. You know, British Boxing, Classic Boxing, SNIVELING-HYPOCRITICAL-NON-BOXING-FANS. That way you ****wits can hang out in your very own forum, and ***** and whine to each other.

Ever since KP launched his comeback under Garcia, 9 out of 10 of you ****ing morons have done nothing but critisize the level of competition. Now he shuts down the idea of fighting a nobody like Rodriguez, and goes after the #1 guy, and he catches nothing but **** for it. This is one of the gutsiest moves I've seen since the first Ali/Quarry fight (actually at the time it was more of a Quarry/Ali fight than vice versa) and Pavlik deserves big props for his willingness to step up to the plate.

Oh, and by the way, just to pour a little salt in your pathetic and festering little wounds, Kelly is extremely excited, and fully expects to knock Ward out.

Serious question; why is it a brave move?

It's not like Ward is a knockout artist who is a threat to Pavlik. Both will earn good money and on top of that, if Pavlik loses a wide UD, does it really hurt him? Everyone expects him to lose a wide decision so if he does, what has he lost? Nothing. He can still come back and work his way up. It's not a risky fight because Ward can't punch and it's not a risky move to take the fight because Pavlik has nothing to lose due to expectations being so low.

It's like you're desperate to praise Pavlik all the time. Good luck to him and fair play for taking it, but it's not some monumental step. It's not like he's jumping up 3 divisions to fight Wlad.

It's not like Ward is a knockout artist who is a threat to Pavlik. Both will earn good money and on top of that, if Pavlik loses a wide UD, does it really hurt him? Everyone expects him to lose a wide decision so if he does, what has he lost? Nothing. He can still come back and work his way up. It's not a risky fight because Ward can't punch and it's not a risky move to take the fight because Pavlik has nothing to lose due to expectations being so low.

It's like you're desperate to praise Pavlik all the time. Good luck to him and fair play for taking it, but it's not some monumental step. It's not like he's jumping up 3 divisions to fight Wlad.

It's not especially brave, but when you want to go after the best, I think that has to be respected.

It's not quite like when he said "I'd fight godzilla for $2", that would be a situation if he took a fight with Stevenson. The downside to that is, if he beat up on Stevenson Miranda-style people would say that he beat up on a limited fighter. So I won't nit-pick on trying to fight by far the best fighter at 168.

Awkward rangy, power, great one two with a solid uppercut comin for andre on the inside. Great fight make it happen

no he isn't. pavlik is made for ward in every way. once andre gets on the inside it's game over. he wouldn't know what to do there as he's a fighter who uses his reach. ward wouldn't fight at long range, he's not stupid. he'd make it another foul fest that stinks the place out. boring UD.